The Concrete Blonde: Harry Bosch Series, Book 3

The Dollmaker was the name of the serial killer who had stalked Los Angeles ruthlessly, leaving grisly calling cards on the faces of his victims. Now, with a single faultless shot, Harry Bosch thinks he has ended the city's nightmare.

The Last Coyote: Harry Bosch Series, Book 4

Harry attacked his commanding officer and is suspended indefinitely, pending a psychiatric evaluation. At first he resists the LAPD shrink, but finally recognizes that something is troubling him and has for a long time. In 1961, when Harry was 12, his mother, a prostitute, was brutally murdered with no one ever accused of the crime.

The Black Ice: Harry Bosch Series, Book 2

Narcotics officer Cal Moore's orders were to look into the city's latest drug killing. Instead, he ends up in a motel room with his head in several pieces and a suicide note stuffed in his back pocket.

Trunk Music: Harry Bosch Series, Book 5

Back on the job after an involuntary leave of absence, LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch is ready for a challenge. But his first case is a little more than he bargained for. It starts with the body of a Hollywood producer in the trunk of a Rolls-Royce, shot twice in the head at close range - what looks like "trunk music", a Mafia hit.

The Black Echo: Harry Bosch Series, Book 1

For LAPD homicide cop Harry Bosch - hero, maverick, nighthawk - the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal. The dead man, Billy Meadows, was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who fought side by side with him in a nightmare underground war that brought them to the depths of hell.

Angels Flight: A Harry Bosch Novel

An activist attorney is killed in a cute little L.A. trolley called Angels Flight, far from Harry Bosch's Hollywood turf. But the case is so explosive - and the dead man's enemies inside the L.A.P.D. are so numerous - that it falls to Harry to solve it. Now the streets are superheating. Harry's year-old Vegas marriage is unraveling. And the hunt for a killer is leading Harry to another high-profile L.A. murder case, one where every cop had a motive. The question is, did any have the guts?

A Darkness More than Night: Harry Bosch Series, Book 7

A movie director is charged with murdering an actress during sex, and then staging her death to make it look like a suicide. In a seemingly unrelated case, a loner is murdered, leaving the sheriff's department with no clues. One unsettling revelation after another leaves a retired FBI agent and an L.A. detective thinking they've unmasked a most frightening killer with almost inconceivable calculation.

Lost Light: Harry Bosch Series, Book 9

Four years ago, LAPD detective Harry Bosch was on a movie set, asking questions about the murder of a young production assistant, when an armored car arrived with $2 million cash for use in a heist scene. In a life-imitates-art firestorm, a gang of masked men converged on the delivery and robbed the armored car with guns blazing. The crime was never resolved, and the young woman's murder was in the stack of unsolved-case files Bosch carried home the night he left the LAPD.

The Closers: Harry Bosch Series, Book 11

In Los Angeles in 1988, a 16-year-old girl disappeared from her home and was later found dead of a gunshot wound to the chest. The death appeared at first to be a suicide, but some of the evidence contradicted that scenario, and detectives came to believe this was in fact a murder. Despite a by-the-book investigation, no one was ever charged.

The Narrows: Harry Bosch Series, Book 10

FBI agent Rachel Walling finally gets the call she's dreaded for years: the one that tells her the Poet has returned. Years ago she worked on the famous case, tracking down the serial killer who wove lines of poetry into his hideous crimes. Rachel has never forgotten Robert Backus, the killer who called himself the Poet, and apparently he has not forgotten her either.

Echo Park: Harry Bosch Series, Book 12

In 1993, Marie Gesto disappeared after walking out of a supermarket. Harry Bosch worked the case but couldn't crack it, and the 22-year-old was never found. Now, more than a decade later, with the Gesto file still on his desk, Bosch gets a call from the district attorney. A man accused of two heinous murders is willing to come clean about several others, including the killing of Marie Gesto.

The Brass Verdict: A Novel

Things are finally looking up for defense attorney Mickey Haller. After two years of wrong turns, Haller is back in the courtroom. When Hollywood lawyer Jerry Vincent is murdered, Haller inherits his biggest case yet: the defense of Walter Elliott, a prominent studio executive accused of murdering his wife and her lover. But as Haller prepares for the case that could launch him into the big time, he learns that Vincent's killer may be coming for him next.

The Reversal: Harry Bosch, Book 16 (Mickey Haller, Book 3)

Longtime defense attorney Mickey Haller is recruited to change stripes and prosecute the high-profile retrial of a brutal child murder. After 24 years in prison, convicted killer Jason Jessup has been exonerated by new DNA evidence. Haller is convinced Jessup is guilty, and he takes the case on the condition that he gets to choose his investigator, LAPD Detective Harry Bosch.

Nine Dragons: Harry Bosch, Book 15

The one good thing in Bosch's life, the person he holds most dear, is taken from him and Bosch travels to Hong Kong in an all-or-nothing bid to regain what he's lost. In a place known as Nine Dragons, as the city's Hungry Ghosts festival burns around him, Bosch puts aside everything he knows and risks everything he has in a desperate bid to outmatch the triad's ferocity.

The Overlook: Harry Bosch Series, Book 13

A body has been found on the overlook near Mulholland Drive. The victim, identified as Dr. Stanley Kent, has two bullet holes in the back of his head, from what looks like an execution-style shooting. LAPD detective Harry Bosch is called out to investigate. As soon as Bosch begins retracing Dr. Kent's steps, contradictions emerge. While Kent doesn't seem to have had ties to organized crime, he did have access to dangerous radioactive substances from just about every hospital in Los Angeles County.

Blood Work

Thanks to a heart transplant, former FBI agent Terrell McCaleb is enjoying a quiet retirement, renovating the fishing boat he lives on in Los Angeles Harbor. But McCaleb's calm seas turn choppy when a story in the "What Happened To?" column of the LA Times brings him face-to-face with the sister of the woman whose heart now beats in his chest.

The Poet

Our hero is Jack McEvoy, a Rocky Mountain News crime-beat reporter. As the story opens, Jack's twin brother, a Denver homicide detective, has just killed himself. Or so it seems. But when Jack begins to investigate the phenomenon of police suicides, a disturbing pattern emerges, and soon suspects that a serial murderer is at work.

The Drop: Harry Bosch, Book 17

Harry Bosch has been given three years before he must retire from the LAPD, and he wants cases more fiercely than ever. In one morning, he gets two. DNA from a 1989 rape and murder matches a 29-year-old convicted rapist. Was he an eight-year-old killer, or has something gone terribly wrong in the new Regional Crime Lab? Then Bosch and his partner are called to a death scene fraught with internal politics....

The Fifth Witness

Mickey Haller has fallen on tough times. He expands his business into foreclosure defense, only to see one of his clients accused of killing the banker she blames for trying to take away her home. Mickey puts his team into high gear to exonerate Lisa Trammel, even though the evidence and his own suspicions tell him his client is guilty. Soon after he learns that the victim had black market dealings of his own, Haller is assaulted, too - and he's certain he's on the right trail. Despite the danger and uncertainty, Haller mounts the best defense of his career in a trial where the last surprise comes after the verdict is in.

The Burning Room

In the LAPD's Open-Unsolved Unit, not many murder victims die almost a decade after the crime. So when a man succumbs to complications from being shot by a stray bullet nine years earlier, Bosch catches a case in which the body is still fresh, but all other evidence is virtually nonexistent. Now Bosch and rookie Detective Lucia Soto, are tasked with solving what turns out to be a highly charged, politically sensitive case.

The Gods of Guilt

Mickey Haller gets the text, "Call me ASAP - 187," and the California penal code for murder immediately gets his attention. Murder cases have the highest stakes and the biggest paydays, and they always mean Haller has to be at the top of his game. When Mickey learns that the victim was his own former client, a prostitute he thought he had rescued and put on the straight and narrow path, he knows he is on the hook for this one. He soon finds out that she was back in LA and back in the life.

The Lincoln Lawyer

Haller is a Lincoln Lawyer, a criminal defense pro who operates out of the backseat of his Lincoln Town Car, to defend clients at the bottom of the legal food chain. It's no wonder that he is despised by cops, prosecutors, and even some of his own clients. But an investigator is murdered for getting too close to the truth and Haller quickly discovers that his search for innocence has taken him face to face with a kind of evil as pure as a flame.

The Black Box: Harry Bosch, Book 18

In a case that spans 20 years, Harry Bosch links the bullet from a recent crime to a file from 1992, the killing of a young female photographer during the L.A. riots. Harry originally investigated the murder, but it was then handed off to the Riot Crimes Task Force and never solved. Now Bosch's ballistics match indicates that her death was not random violence, but something more personal, and connected to a deeper intrigue. Like an investigator combing through the wreckage after a plane crash, Bosch searches for the "black box", the one piece of evidence that will pull the case together.

Publisher's Summary

The Dollmaker was the name of the serial killer who had stalked Los Angeles ruthlessly, leaving grisly calling cards on the faces of his victims. Now, with a single faultless shot, Harry Bosch thinks he has ended the city's nightmare.

But the dead man's widow is suing Harry and the LAPD for killing the wrong man - an accusation that rings terrifyingly true when a new victim is discovered with the Dollmaker's macabre signature.

So, for the second time, Harry must hunt down a death-dealer who is very much alive, before he strikes again. It's a blood-tracked quest that will take Harry from the hard edges of the L.A. night to the last place he ever wanted to go - the darkness of his own heart.

I've listened to several Michael Connelly audiobooks, and love the Harry Bosch series. I was excited to see several more recently become available on Audible.
The Concrete Blonde is my current favorite Bosch book, topping my previous favorite: Echo Park.
It's an outstanding mix of courtroom thriller and serial killer hunt/police procedural. It moves along quickly, even the courtroom scenes are fast paced.
Characters are very well developed, not just Bosch, but all the supporting characters, and I like the plot: Bosch is sued for unlawful killing of a serial killer suspect, while at the same time a copycat killer is out there and more bodies begin to show up.
Just when you think you have it all figured out, there will be a couple twists at the end to keep you guessing. An excellent whodunnit. I highly recommend this book, even if it is your first Harry Bosch mystery.

Connelly's typically solid work. Great texture, a fascinating and evolving lead character, tightly constructed plot. My only problem with this one was that I never believed the central premise, the fact that Bosch could realistically be found guilty in the court case at the center of the story. To me this part of the book seemed to be manipulated in a way which undermined its credibility. As a result, it was necessary to suspend my disbelief in order to really enjoy the book.

Dick Hill's narration, as always, was right on target. A pleasure to listen to.

I've started reading the Bosch series in chronological order and was much happier with this offering than I was with The Black Ice. Both the courtroom scenes (don't know why a previous reviewer was tortured by them) and the "whodonit" trail made it difficult to shut off my iPod. Bosch even starts to get likable in this book. Dick Hill's narration was excellent and I had to chuckle at the hint of Jack Nicholson that worked its way into his portrayal of the reporter, Bremer. I had heard Hill use this voice before. The book had lots of twists, turns and misdirection. An enjoyable listen. Can't wait to start on The Last Coyote on my ride to work today.

I don't know how I missed this book until now. I like the Harry Bosch series and this certainly did not dissapoint me. I loved it. Dick Hill's narration was terrific. This has everything one could want in a murder mystery.

This is one of the first Bosch novels and one I'd read many years ago. Fortunately the only things I tend to remember are interdepartmental and personal relationships about Bosch so the mystery was new to me. It's a great one.

If this was a new release I'd give the review more time. One key aspect is the excellent performance of Dick Hill. More than one of the narrators of this series read like its a documentary. Hill brings the best out in Bosch!

I like the later Harry Bosch novels, but this one evinces a Connelly initially trying to find his way to a good story that's also plausible. The Concrete Blonde is as realistic, from the standpoint of the centerpiece lawsuit, as a Calvin P Yeen on a Cowboy helmet in downtown Dallas.

Dick Hill's thick Chicago accent grates the whole way through, especially when he attempts the female voices and even moreso when he puts his hand over the mike to try to give the effect of someone speaking from the other end of a phone call. Think, Mike Ditka narrating it to you in the passenger seat while he munches a super-size bag of Doritos.

Man, this was a fabulous story, very well written with plenty of turns and twists to keep us listeners guessing. Dick Hill's narration was outstanding and after this book has crept up into my top 2 or 3 favorite narrators. He is getting to the level of Frank Muller. Too bad Hill quits doing Connelly's books after Angels Flight. Anyway, this book was so good I finished it in 4 days.

This is my third Connelly book and clearly he has the art of detective novels down. I am not a big detective book person but I do get into his books. Not many wasted conversations but enough to make you think throughout the book. Hill as narrator is good but not great. Good enough to make me want to order Connolly's next book in the series. Should not disappoint if you order this one.

Would you listen to The Concrete Blonde: Harry Bosch Series, Book 3 again? Why?

Yes, it has twists and turns that keeps you wanting to find out what happens next. Performance by Dick Hill is excellent. I think he is the best narrator for Connelly's Bosch novels. I've listen to other Connelly books and Hill's voice is the best even tho I liked Grupper's voice in the Lincoln Lawyer. He sounds like Haller should sound!

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Yes. It kept me listening with only a break for sleeping.

Which character – as performed by Dick Hill – was your favorite?

Hill performs each character very well, however I guess I like Harvey "98" Pounds the best of all the recurring characters in the Bosch series

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes... but couldn't.

Any additional comments?

I like the Harry Bosch series because Bosch is human. He is a tough cop who makes mistakes and get things wrong yet he is compassionate, kind and considerate.

I am a great fan of Michael Connelly and have read all his books. He has managed to maintain a high standard right through his career, unlike some of his contemporaries such as Patricia D Cornwell. That said I like his earlier books the most and "Concrete Blonde" is one of the best. Well written and expertly plotted, the pace and tension never slacken, and his hero Harry Bosch is always likeable and very human. Great stuff.

Narration is first class, and the sound quality is excellent.

Strongly recommended for anyone who likes a good thriller.

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

John L.

2/28/09

Overall

"A great story - edge of seat stuff."

One of those stories that makes you look forward to driving the long way home so you can keep on listening to it in the car. Or finding a reason to take the dog out for another walk, just to find out what happens next - certainly going to look to see if there are any more of these gems waiting to be listened to!

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

M

Kilwinning, United Kingdom

8/31/11

Overall

"Excellent story, well read"

This was the second Michael Connelly book that I listened to. It was of the same consistently high quality as the first. The plot was satisfyingly complicated, with twists and turns and dead ends. The story was well plotted and easily followed. There were sufficient characters and they had their own voices; they were believable, and fairly well rounded without being too stereotyped. The dialogue flowed well and was engaging. The location was well described and it enhanced the story. Finally, the narrator did a very good job by giving the characters their own consistent and appropriate voices. If you like thrillers and 'who done it's' then this is a good choice.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Brian

Preston, United Kingdom

2/10/11

Overall

"ANOTHER PAGE TURNER, GRIPPING"

Wow where does Micheal Connelly get his ideas for his books especially the Harry Bosch series.
Another of his books that has you gripped from begining to the end.You dont want the book to end because it is so good , but you need to know the outcome.
The narration is very good and you feel as though you are along side Bosch as he is going about the case.
Buy it you will not be dissapointed.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

anne

Bedford, United Kingdom

7/25/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Good but dated"

Good book but very dated now. The use of video recorders, tapes and no mobile phones makes it quaint. Not to mention the dated forensic details. Even a casual viewer of CSI would know what the killer didn't! But it was still a good story read by a good narrator.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

ben evans

7/23/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"love bosch"

What did you like most about The Concrete Blonde: Harry Bosch Series, Book 3?

great storyline you gotta love bosch, all his storys so far have been excellent and look forward to starting the next one.

What did you like best about this story?

great narration, really suits the character.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

harry does make me laugh. really amusing character.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Lynda

Beckenham, United Kingdom

3/29/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Kept me Guessing!"

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Apologies but I just wrote a review of this book but in error posted it in the title The Last Coyote. See my post there for this book. It was excellent and so is Dick Hill the narrator!

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Mr

Faversham, United Kingdom

3/11/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Fantastic crime"

This book is so gripping and kept me guessing all the way to the end. Fantastic twists just keep coming.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

eric

DONCASTER, United Kingdom

3/10/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"I have really enjoyed this book"

I have really enjoyed this book it was great to go back to how Bosch ended up in Hollywood homacide was it.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Tim

NORWICH, United Kingdom

6/9/13

Overall

Performance

Story

"Harry Bosch ?"

Very much in the Kojak style of policing is Harry Bosch , an interesting story, but it helps if you've read Books 1 and 2 . Its a trip back to the 70s /80s american detective stories that were on TV . I liked it

0 of 1 people found this review helpful

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